The Socialist 29 May 2013

767

Evict this millionaires' government

Campaign to stop bedroom tax evictions!

No to terrorism! No to racism! No to war!

Unite to fight racism!

Even the cutters say cuts aren't working!

This is what's 'not to like' about Free Schools, Boris

Nasty party exposed by equal marriage bill

Stop the NHS privatisation rip-off

Rotten greedy banks still threaten crisis

PCS conference sends defiant message to the government

PCS Land Registry delegates commit to action

Strike action needed to save Royal Mail

Wales TUC conference - a missed opportunity

No future with Future Directions

Fire service cuts

Workplace News in brief

Haringey TUSC: trade unions and communities prepare for 2014

'Brilliant' South West conference sees record turnout

Fund the fightback in the SP collectathon

Boosting South West Wales paper sales

Socialist Party youth organisers meeting Sunday 30 June, 10.30am-4.30pm, London

Oppose Kazakhstan regime's latest campaign clampdown

South Africa: Eye-witness to the developing struggle

Riots expose inequality in Sweden

Sri Lanka: Working class beginning to move forward

Salford Socialist Students help lead fightback against job and course cuts

London students fight union closure plan

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Nasty party exposed by equal marriage bill

Michael Johnson

When MPs decided to debate amendments to the Con-Dems' 'gay marriage' bill, most people probably braced themselves for a bit of homophobia disguised as concern over religion.

And that was there: Conservative MP David Burrows said, essentially, religious schools should be able to teach that gay marriage is wrong.

Others made the typical but still infuriating argument that allowing LGB people to marry would be marginalising and discriminating against those who think that LGB marriage is an 'equality too far'. The 95% of LGBT youth who regularly experience discrimination seem to be less deserving of consideration!

Things escalated when another Tory MP Gerald Howarth criticised an apparent 'aggressive homosexual community' for pushing things so that straight people now have fewer rights than LGBT people.

Obviously, the 'aggressive homosexual' controlled media has been hushing up gangs of LGBT people beating up straight people for seeming straight...

Lord Tebbit said the Conservative Party had 'fucked up' and posed such brain teasers as: "When we have a queen who is a lesbian and she marries another lady and then decides she would like to have a child and someone donates sperm and she gives birth to a child, is that child heir to the throne?" and whether the bill would mean he could marry his son to allow him to avoid paying inheritance tax!

But the arguments against - and wrecking amendments such as 'opt out' clauses - failed spectacularly.

Labour answered Cameron's eleventh hour plea and voted against the amendments. So marriage equality took a small step forward.

Majority support

Cameron has pushed this bill to try to make the Tories look progressive. Marriage equality is supported by the large majority of the UK, despite what some church leaders have presented.

Marriage equality is an important step forward, but this is not the end of the struggle: the marriage bill as it stands is not perfect, especially for trans people due to the wording around gender and the implications towards the status of a marriage or civil partnership if someone transitions.

But many LGB people, due to the attacks and cuts introduced by the government such as increasing unemployment, low pay, and lack of housing, will have a low quality of life after marriage.

The LGBT community must unite with the other oppressed sections of society: women, immigrants, and the working class as a whole; to fight for true marriage equality, including civil partnerships for any consenting couple regardless of gender or homophobic prejudice.

This movement must also resist attacks affecting the working class as a whole, fighting not just for a few small gains over time but for a true transformation in society.

In this issue

Scrap the Bedroom tax

Evict this millionaires' government